The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Francisco de Osuna

First published:Tercer abecedario espiritual, 1527 (English translation, 1931)

Edition(s) used:The Third Spiritual Alphabet, translated with an introduction by Mary E. Giles. New York: Paulist Press, 1981

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Meditation and contemplation; mysticism

Core issue(s): Mysticism; prayer; purgation; recollection; union with God

Overview

Little is known of the author of a work that was to influence one of Spain’s most famous mystics, Saint Teresa of Ávila, and through her, countless others. Francisco de Osuna was ordained about 1519-1520 and three years later entered a Franciscan monastery, where, as a guide for meditation, he formulated maxims and arranged them in alphabetical order. He composed three such alphabets, each with twenty-three distichs to correspond with the twenty-two letters and tilde of the Spanish alphabet, and later glossed them as treatises on the Passion (1528), prayer and ascetic practices (1530), and recollection (1527). A total of six alphabets appeared, though not all follow the alphabetical format: Ley de amor (1530; law of love), fifty-one rules of love; Norte de los estados (1531; the North Star of ranks), advice to people in all social ranks on Christian ideals; and Gracioso convite (1530; gracious banquet), on the Eucharist. Osuna’s life was devoted to preaching and writing in both Spanish and Latin during a time of religious renewal and ferment in Spain. His work in the Franciscan order took him to France, Belgium, and Italy.

Osuna wrote during a fertile yet dangerous time in Spain. Mysticism was in the air in the sixteenth century, fostered by translations in Spanish of the writings of early and later mystics such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Meister Eckhart, Bernard of Clairvaux, and John Gerson; translations of the New Testament; the ideas of Desiderius Erasmus and interiorized Christianity; and the practice and teaching of mental prayer in and out of monasteries. In the forefront of the push for a Christianity purified of extraneous external practices were laywomen who, with laymen and religious, especially Franciscan priests, inspired small gatherings for the purpose of prayer. Among the charismatic women leaders were Francisca Hernández and Isabel de la Cruz, both of whom were brought before the Inquisition on charges that included teaching quietist doctrines.

The practice that was sure to arouse the suspicion of the Inquisition was mental prayer, which, defined briefly, is to think about the meaning of words that are said, whether aloud or silently. On the basis of this definition, mental prayer sounds innocent, but when some advocates professed their utter inability to do anything whatsoever in prayer except abandon themselves to divine grace, the ranks of the prayerful split and the stage was set for the Inquisition to attack. On one side were the advocates of dejamiento (abandonment), who went so far in the abandon to God’s grace that they denied the efficacy of virtuous deeds, vocal prayer, external devotion, penitence, and even the Eucharist, claiming, in the last instance, that the Eucharist was more effectively present in the heart than in a bit of bread. Opposing them were the defenders of recogimiento, or recollection, who accepted the sacramental and devotional life of the Church while nourishing an inner prayer that at least in the beginning stages required mental effort.

Osuna clearly was in the camp of the second group; his Third Spiritual Alphabet is not only a personal statement of belief in the prayer of recollection but also its most eloquent description and bold defense. To appreciate the vigor of the treatise and its author’s courage, we need to remember that only two years before its publication, the Inquisition had made its first public statement against the alumbrados (enlightened ones), condemning their practice of dejamiento.

The twenty-three treatises of The Third Spiritual Alphabet trace the journey inward in terms of recollection. The initial five treatises are a preparation for the journey, which is to be made primarily through the heart. Osuna first clarifies that the goal of union with God is proper to all Christians; he then counsels as appropriate to understanding our relationship with God the response of gratitude for the general work of Creation, particular blessings we receive, and favors bestowed by God that we do not discern. Our general response is to be affective, with the understanding blind, the will deaf to all but love for God, and the memory dumb. The fifth treatise is an exhortation to a careful examination of conscience—counsel the pilgrim is to heed not only at this point of beginning recollection but all along the journey as well.

The sixth treatise is among the most important of the alphabet. Osuna emphasizes first that, although each must find an individual path to God, all should practice recollection in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ who went into the desert to pray alone. He states that recollection is the term for mystical theology, or wisdom infused into the soul, and offers several other names for it: the art of love, union, profundity, concealment, abstinence, drawing near, enkindling, welcome, consent, the marrow and fat of sacrifice, attraction, adoption, arrival, height, spiritual ascension, and the third heaven. In general, recollection gathers together the senses, sensuality and reason, bodily members and virtues, the soul’s three powers with its highest faculty, and God and the soul.

Treatises 7 through 12 develop recollection as the art of emptying the heart from within. Osuna recommends first purgation of thought (treatise 7), actions and speech (9), memory and will (11), and understanding (12). In the order of purgations, Osuna’s methodology is similar to that of Saint John of the Cross, reflective perhaps of the Scholastic training they had in common.

Osuna also details reasons for learning and teaching recollection; offers practical advice on the choice of a spiritual director (8); and advises how to respond when the intensity of love erupts in outcries and gestures (9). His discussion of sighing, groaning, and bodily movements during prayer suggests that these phenomena may be a mark of progress in prayer; his commonsensical advice, however, is to control the outbursts unless in doing so interior devotion wanes. Anticipating the teaching of later Carmelite mystics, Osuna refused to measure spirituality by extraordinary phenomena that affect the senses and emotions.

The tenth treatise is a beautiful exposition of the favors God bestows along the journey, including the gifts of tears, teaching, and healing. In distinguishing the tears of beginners, proficients, and perfects, Osuna once again honors the tripartite division of the mystical way and the movement from active to passive consciousness.

The inward journey intensifies in subtlety as in the eleventh and twelfth treatises Osuna describes the purgation of the higher faculties of memory, will, and understanding. Memories of worldly pleasures are to be erased, leaving only images of the Sacred Humanity and of God on a general, universal level. Purgation of the will is accomplished both actively, as the soul strives to desire only God, and passively, when the heart inexplicably is moved to desire God. The twelfth treatise in its entirety is a culminating point in The Third Spiritual Alphabet as the soul is taught to rely not on natural knowledge or even understandings that come in a supernatural way—as when one hears voices from the outside—but on knowledge received in the darkness of unknowing.

Having described the process whereby the senses and higher faculties are recollected, Osuna explains in following treatises experiences that come to the soul well along the mystical way. His topics include vocal prayer, prayer of the heart, and mental or spiritual prayer (13); the need for gentle discipline in the practice of prayer and the purgation of passions, especially joy and sadness (14); and general and special recollection (15). His descriptions of prayer are perceptive, as when he distinguishes between general recollection as a state of alertness to God and special recollection as moments of retiring into the heart (he recommends at least two hours each day of special recollection). In regarding recollection as a process of prayer, Osuna differs from Teresa, for whom recollection was one kind of prayer.

Treatise 16, on love, is a second culminating point in the alphabet. Osuna’s advice is that we learn to draw love from everything in creation and refer it to God.

The remaining treatises are unified by a pattern of alternating themes; Osuna treats now prayer, now problems and obstacles: love and infused prayer; suffering and imitating Jesus Christ in hardship as well as glory; spiritual prayer; humility and temptations; the heights of prayer wherein the soul understands in darkness; and zeal and perseverance.

Just as treatises 12 and 16 are climactic points, so also is treatise 21. Culminating all the preceding material in the treatise, Osuna expounds the role of understanding in the vía negativa of recollection, elaborating the doctrine of the negative way and clarifying misunderstandings about the practice of no pensar nada (stopping thought). Osuna supports the belief of affective mystics that it is the will rather than the understanding that enables wisdom to be received into the soul. In the third degree of silence, the soul is transformed in God, its understanding quieted so that it understands nothing happening about it. In the highest part of the soul, God’s image is imprinted and there are received divine understandings which the understanding cannot understand. Although the understanding is asleep and the will at rest in this union of soul with God, the perfection is not the no pensar nada condition of the quietists. Osuna maintains that not only must one learn to quiet oneself by mental discipline during the purgative and illuminative stages of the journey, but even the most advanced souls must always exercise their understanding. Recollection is a process that requires unceasing vigilance.

Christian Themes

A summary of the main Christian concerns of Osuna’s The Third Spiritual Alphabet includes the following points:

•Recollection is a general term for prayer, including vocal prayer accompanied by thinking, mental prayer, and passive prayer.

•Recollection is also the process of prayer wherein the soul becomes increasingly passive with respect to God.

•Eventually recollection is an ongoing alertness to God intensified by moments of acute awareness of God when the soul is infused with wisdom beyond rational understanding.

•The way of recollection is primarily affective, but recollection is not quietism.

•Recollection is open to everyone, including women and married people.

Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet is important in its own right as a detailed description of the interior journey as well as a source of inspiration for both Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross. The fusing of the affective and intellectual that is a hallmark of later Carmelite spirituality informs the alphabet. The structure of the alphabet is not as rigorous as that of Saint John’s treatises, but the ascent away from the known to the unknown that Osuna traces through increasingly subtle forms of recollection is similar to Saint John’s. If Saint Teresa is a favorite with spiritual pilgrims today, it is in large part because her appealing style is enlivened by images she met in Osuna’s work. A traveler on the mystical way and spiritual director for many others, Francisco de Osuna, like Saint Teresa and Saint John, drew on rich experiential resources to create a treasure house of practical advice, wisdom, and love of God.

Sources for Further Study

Beaumont, David Joseph. “Prayer and the Contemplative Life in Francisco de Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet.” Master’s thesis. Berkeley, Calif.: Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, 1988. A rare study of the work, by a student of the Dominican order.

Calvert, Laura. Francisco de Osuna and the Spirit of the Letter. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 1973. A careful and illuminating study.